Patently Apple

Apple has been granted a patent from the US Patent and Trademark Office for a service that would store vehicle keys on an iPhone. “Apple’s granted patent generally relates to wireless communication between computing devices and, more particularly, to using portable computing devices to access a vehicle,” Patently Apple reports. The service would let users open their car doors, start the engine and shut it off for specific time periods and program personalised vehicle settings.

Apple has been granted 45 patents relating to NFC, Touch ID and Apple Watch in the US, Patently Apple reports. An NFC element “may serve as an antenna for transmitting NFC signals to external equipment” such as NFC hearing aids, POS equipment and security card readers. The Touch ID patent details a system of scanning a fingerprint’s “flow angles” as they pass over the sensor.

Apple’s latest patent details how an Apple Watch could exchange information with another when wearers greet each other with a handshake. “The wearable devices can detect their proximity to the other (using BLE or NFC-based proximity sensors),” Patently Apple reports. “Each device can communicate with the other (using Bluetooth, NFC, Wi-Fi or other wireless communication channels) to verify it experienced similar acceleration.”

The US Patent and Trademark Office has granted Apple a patent for its Concert Ticket+ concept, first unveiled in 2010. “Apple’s newly granted patent covers their invention relating to tickets to events and to obtaining, storing and accessing tickets to events and benefits associated with such tickets using an electronic device,” Patently Apple reports. It adds the original patent went on to help form the Passbook application, and is now “directly related to the use of Apple Pay”.

The US Patent & Trademark Office has published three patent applications from Apple that relate to both Apple Pay and Touch ID biometric verification. Among the patents is one that includes a “schematic block diagram of an electronic system providing iCloud-based storage and exchange of enrollment finger biometric data,” Patently Apple reports, and one that sets out a way to use NFC or an alternative short range wireless communication technology to download enrolled finger biometric data.

Apple has been steadily building a portfolio of patents related to NFC and mobile payments over recent years, from as far back as 2009. NFC World+ has reported on these as they have been published and links are provided here to details of 23 patents covering technical innovations and use cases in payments, mobile marketing, coupon delivery, gifting, event ticketing, content sharing, travel and beyond. More

Apple has applied for a patent covering processes for gifting digital content to friends using transmission methods including NFC, according to Patently Apple. The iPhone maker’s patent application outlines a two-step confirmation process: Users can choose to give a song, for example, and then tap on a friend’s device to send a gift. A confirmation message is then sent back to the giver’s device and the gift is charged to the giver’s account.

The latest in a host of near field communication-related patent applications from Apple covers the use of an NFC-enabled iPhone for buying an airline ticket and for checking in baggage. As well as a manned… More

What is NFC World?

We report on the emerging technologies that are transforming how consumers choose what to buy, who to buy from, and how to pay. Find out more